Assisting those in need (being "griefed", etc)

[Ketamininja]

EDIT:

That'll teach me to post without catching up on other posts first. This would come under the topic of "CODE FURY" I guess... which details are still to be worked out (mentioned under http://thefuriousangels.com/index.php?msg=114465)...

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This is just a quick post to gather our thoughts on the direction of FA in regards to other Republic members (guilded or otherwise).


The other night on Tatooine, there was chatter in the general channel regarding a level 50 imp who was camping the datacron on the balloon (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bD4Q3ObBlZA). I (lvl 39 at the time) was on Tatooine, and there was another FA-er (lvl 29) elsewhere on the planet.

With my experience on the issue, it would be very difficult for the two of us to team up against the lvl 50... and so a shout went out on Guild chat to see what could be done.



Now, please note that this is not a complaint that we didn't respond. I understand we can't respond to all instances of this, and I don't expect us to. Especially when others are on a different planet, have to QT (or run) back to the spaceport, get on your ship, hyperjump to Tatooine, get down to the planet, then taxi and run to the problem area. This takes a lot of time.

Unlike MxO where it was a lot easier (IMO) to get from hardline to hardline, we do face a problem in getting around quickly around the universe. In MxO it was very easy for us to gather against problem users, and in turn gave FA a very very good name in the game. We were THE "go to" people for assitance.




So I was curious in what direction FA can take this, in the huge universe of SWTOR, so that we can build up our name like in MxO. Ideally, it would have been great for us to gather against the shout that went out on Tatooine... but how can we effectively do that? How can we decide what areas we can reach if a call does go out?

I know we are all busy in game, but quests do eventually get completed and WZ's finish very quickly, in general... but I know we all want to get to 50!!


Again, I want to point out this isn't a complaint that we didn't respond to the Tatooine call... I just want to try and capture what we had in MxO if possible (or at least ask if that's what we ARE wanting to do)... and how we can accomplish that effectively.

[Fuse]

I was on, and my personal reason for not coming was because i was trying to finish the wz missions before the server shut down,  otherwise i would have been there.

[Keeloth]

I understand we can't respond to all instances of this, and I don't expect us to. Especially when others are on a different planet, have to QT (or run) back to the spaceport, get on your ship, hyperjump to Tatooine, get down to the planet, then taxi and run to the problem area. This takes a lot of time.

I think this is really the heart of the matter.  Gabe of Penny Arcade summed it up pretty well in a news post:

I also really dislike the Orbital Stations. When someone on another planet asks for help I think "I'll need to go from ship to airlock to hallway to elevator to orbital station to shuttle to spaceport to fuck you I'm not helping you with that quest." If I want to quick travel (or space hearth as we like to call it) I click on a doodad and a shuttle is sent to pick me up. How about you just send my ship? or a shuttle to take me to my ship or whatever just get me to my ship without making me go through a maze of hallways and load screens.

At one point, we organized a countergank squad to take out a bunch of gankers on Voss.  As soon as we landed, they vanished into an instance and didn't come out again until we dispersed.  It was pretty frustrating to those in the group, and the gankers just came out again after we left.  

Until Bioware makes traveling from planet to planet a little easier, we may have to reserve responses for 1. People are are trapped in a gank loop and can't escape via medcenter (aka Voss) and 2.  Massive red pushes in endgame areas like Ilum.  In the first case, our objective would be to free up our camped member so s/he can finish their quests in that place.  In the second, the reds would likely be pushing for a fight and less likely to scatter at the first sign of us.

[Rezinar]

I like the idea of a " anti gank squad " and I am all for it. To me,coming to the aid of others in these situations is a very enjoyable part of the game,and helps others see (especially non guild members) that there is some unity in the Republic against the Imperial gankers. I do agree that the process of leaving a planet and going through all the mess to get to another is to long,and by the time a group gets there the attacking Imps have had time to bug out.

[likwidtek]

Keep in mind guys, emergency fleet passes are only 1,000 credits and they have zero cool down.  With that in mind, you still have your normal 24 hour cool down fleet pass.  

You can still get around fairly quickly.

[Lithium]

I think they have a cooldown but it's more in line with quick travel... like 30 minutes I think.

[ZephixLeer (Zephic)]

The travel time is indeed an issue, even with a fleet pass. The problem I've seen recently was the response provided for Belsavus near the world boss.

We all arrived, killed like 8-10 reds, and it was over by the time the entire response ops group arrived. The reds left, end of story.

In that situation the response was necessary, it just ended very quickly after we arrived. They'd been camping a couple of members for a long time, and they weren't leaving willingly. The point is just that after using a fleet pass and quick travel to get there quickly myself, I had to get back on foot due to the lack of flight paths and (unique to that planet) unconnected insta-travel points.

The game does need some changes in the travel department. Even making flight points more direct (more direct routes between points) would help greatly on the trip outbound and make responding less of a frustration at some times.

Personally, I'd love to see some kind of "travel marker" system put in place. They have a form of it in place now, just not available to the player directly. You are put back in the exact place you were before accepting a WZ invite after completing said Warzone now. Couldn't be that difficult to toss in some kind of item where a player can "mark" a location for later travel with something similiar to the fleet pass...

[Ketamininja]

Thanks for the responses on this; good to discuss = I guess the leaders are considering how to approach this (as mentioned on my "code fury" edit at the top of my first post)...

I guess if the reds disperse, then job is done.
It would be nice to get some RP/PVP done as well, but the result is to clear the area...

I wasn't aware of the emergency travel pass. I mean, I know we had a travel pass from leaving your starting planet, but wasn't aware of any particular benefits of that over your own ship.... you still have to go to a spaceport or can that be used "whereever you are"?

[ZephixLeer (Zephic)]

The emergency fleet pass is usable once every 18 hours or so, I believe. However, if you have a smart phone and download the app, or purchase a security key off the swtor website, then you can use the security key vendor in carrick station who has 30 minute versions of that same pass.

The 30 minute versions are only 1k credits each, and you can purchase as many as you'd like. I usually keep about 5 on me at any given time, just so I don't have to buy a new one each time I use it.

But the advantage of using either of these is that they can be used anywhere aside from inside an instance, I believe. So, generally I keep mine for emergency situations like ganking, or a last minute flashpoint or warzone. (i have to go to my ship to participate in warzones for some reason. Otherwise I get excessive amounts of FPS drop and/or network delay even with 20FPS showing and 70 or less ms of latency.)